Episode 5

After the last guests had left, Danika and I cleaned up the shop and then picked up our weekly wages at Baris.

"Riley, I have to speak to you," he said, glancing at his bodyguards. "Your girlfriend can go home, you will come later."

I swallowed and looked less enthusiastic into Danika's skeptical expression. "I'm waiting," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"It's a private conversation," Baris snapped at her. “And if you want to keep your job, you should do what I tell you. Go home, I'll make sure Riley arrives safely later. "

“It's okay.” I nodded to Danika that she should go. There was no way I wanted her to lose her job because of me. And I could handle Baris ... kind of.

Reluctantly, she turned and allowed the two muscular bodyguards to escort her out.

As soon as the door closed behind them, every alarm button went on inside me. I took a few steps back to widen the distance between Baris and myself, and acted as calmly as possible on the outside. "What do you want to talk about?" I asked him in a casual tone.

"That Hunter makes you look pretty, doesn't he?" My boss began, dragging out every single word.

Ah, so that's what it was about. He did not like to see anyone fishing in his waters. "He's interested, but I'm not," I said matter-of-factly. "Don't worry, you don't have to look for a new waitress."

"How very comforting." Baris stepped over to me and I automatically backed away. "Oh, dove, don't be so fluffy now." His fingers slid over my arm.

"Don't do that!" I hissed at him, making another leap away from him. "Or maybe I'll change my mind and accept the Hunter's offer."

"You do that, yes?" He laughed scornfully, revealing his gold-plated tooth crowns. "Will he still want you after I've defiled you?"

Baris dashed forward and grabbed my arm, but since I had quickly registered his movement, I ducked away and grabbed the legs of a stool to lift it up and push against my attacker. Panic and fear drove my adrenaline levels up and gave me unimagined strength. When Baris flew at me with an angry growl, I jumped over the counter, grabbed a bottle from the liquor cabinet, and hit him hard on the head, breaking part of it into splinters of glass.

"You damn bitch!" Baris said, swaying dazedly. I stared in horror at the laceration on his shaved head, from which fine rivulets of blood were now oozing. "You will pay for that!"

My arm snapped forward again and I was in a kind of trance: I could see my hand ramming the broken bottle into Baris' chest, actually a very quick and brutal movement, but at that moment it was in slow motion. He cried out in pain and opened his eyes wide. Blood spurted from his chest and wetted my white blouse and forearms like a dark red fountain.

"Oh, my God!" As if I'd been burned, I abruptly let go of my deadly weapon that was lodged in his chest and stumbled backwards, fell over the overturned stool, and straightened up quickly to get out of the bar to run like the devil himself is after me.

You killed him! , it pounded on me in my head as I walked disoriented through the dark streets, my lungs burning with the exertion.

Murderess!

My vision blurred from the tears that welled up in my eyes. I stumbled, kept walking, barely breathing, and finally stopped, hunched over, hands on my thighs, coughing while gasping for air.

He 'll be back, I tried to calm myself down. Such injuries can heal.

Oh really? Are you a doctor to be able to judge this?

Sobbing, I dropped to my knees and buried my tear-soaked face in both hands. My body was shaken by a crying fit until I could no longer stand upright and sank sideways onto the dirty, damp street.

Only when I heard a rustling and immediately afterwards footsteps did I wake up from the shock and sit up hastily. A stooped figure dragged itself towards me only a few meters away. At first I thought it was the injured Baris, but then I saw that it was an old man with thinning hair and a toothless mouth. He mumbled something I couldn't understand and held out a hand with completely filthy hands and long, dark fingernails.